Frazer Consultants has been hard at work this year to provide your funeral home with innovative technology, solutions, and ideas to help you serve families in your area.

As 2016 comes to a close, we wanted to highlight some of this year’s biggest news, ideas, and products, and also give a sneak peek of what to expect next year.

Tribute Pay

We released one of our biggest website features — Tribute Pay — back in the spring. Tribute Pay acts as an all-in-one online payment center for your funeral home’s website.

Tribute Pay allows families to pay their funeral bill or order keepsake items quickly and easily — and from anywhere. That means your families can pay via desktop, mobile, or tablet devices. By opening up multiple ways for families to pay, you open the door to higher client family satisfaction. Trends are showing that mobile and online payments are features that families want, and that’s exactly what Tribute Pay gives them.

Crowdfunding

Mobile and online payment from Tribute Pay was just the start. This summer, we also unveiled Tribute Pay’s crowdfunding feature.

One of the biggest growing trends in paying for funerals is the use of crowdfunding. But while the idea of a group of people coming together is nice in theory, funeral homes often see drawbacks to families using crowdfunding. Setting up a campaign isn’t easy, and there’s no guarantee that the campaign will reach its goal. And even if it does, there have been issues with the money reaching the funeral home to pay for the funeral expenses.

That’s where Tribute Crowdfunding differs. Setting up a campaign is easy, and donations are made directly on a loved one’s online Tribute Wall — keeping traffic on your funeral home’s website. Best of all? The money donated goes directly to the funeral home first for funeral expenses, putting you in control and giving you the chance to present any additional funds raised to the family.

Security Updates

Cybersecurity is a growing concern for small businesses. A 2012 Verizon study found that more than 70% of cyber data attacks were targeted at businesses with 100 employees or less.

That’s why our developers are constantly releasing new security updates. One of the biggest updates we released this summer was SSL encryption for all Frazer-powered websites. The minute you log in from the admin panel, any personal information and data will be encrypted and private.

ASD Integration

We recognize that a funeral director’s day is always busy, and it’s our goal to save you time. That’s why Frazer Consultants partnered with ASD and their FuneralSync technology this year — just one of the many data management software tools we’re integrated with.

Integration with FuneralSync means saving time entering data and increasing data accuracy. Talk about a win-win.

Funeral Home Resources

The funeral industry is changing at a faster rate than ever before, and for funeral directors, it’s important to commit to becoming a lifelong learner to stay in touch with new trends and family needs.

We’ve been working hard to create free educational resources for funeral directors all year long with our blogs and eBooks. We’ve even created a virtual library, where we keep all of our free eBooks to help keep you updated on growing trends, learn new tricks and tips, and stay up-to-date on industry news.

Best Place to Work

Another achievement we’re proud of this year was being recognized as the Best Place to Work in Madison, Wisconsin. Frazer Consultants won not only the best place to work for small businesses, but also earned the highest score out of all the businesses who submitted applications this year.

Looking Ahead to 2017

2017 is going to be a big year. Tribute Pay’s features will continue to expand with the addition of smart funeral financing programs and the fastest life insurance assignments process around. And it’s all designed to make funeral directors’ jobs easier. All transactions used through the payment center — whether it’s online credit card payments, crowdfunding, financing, or insurance assignments — will appear in one convenient statement to help keep you organized.

New updates also are coming to Tribute Center — our all-in-one funeral personalization software suite. For memorial videos, 2017 will see new and updated intros and options, as well as an increase in video quality.

Frazer Consultants also will continue to expand its integration with other funeral software services in order to create a more seamless experience for funeral directors. Our acquisition of three funeral home website design competitors will mean more growth, more ideas, and ultimately a better experience for all of our website and software customers.

As we continue to grow and expand our services, our mission remains the same — an unwavering commitment to funeral professionals who are driven to provide the very best for their families.